Born in Yugoslavia in 1952, Andrej Zdravic began working in film in 1973. In 1974 he came to the United States and studied film with Hollis Frampton, Paul Sharits and others at the Media Study Center, Buffalo. His most recent films rely on their soundtracks as the driving force. Zdravic states: “The unifying character of the three films (Via Sound, Home and Maria's World) is that they are essentially composed in the camera, that is, the sound and the image are edited simultaneously on the spot and at the time of the actual experience. The sounds are either those found in the actuality, or previously synthesized, or both. The films ought to be seen by listening.”

Via Sound

“A string of ‘vignettes' from a round trip: New York-Calabria, Italy-North Yugoslavia-New York.” --A.Z.

• (1978, 24 mins, sound, super-8, color)

Home

“Filmed in the Grand Canyon, New York, Buffalo and again in New York. It is perhaps about windows and buildings. The views and the buildings undergo drastic changes - a building is destroyed, another covered with ice burns inside.” --A.Z.

• (1979, 14 mins, sound, super-8, color)

Maria's World

“Maria's World grew as did my other works, that is, unplanned. The life and the particulr conditions ‘scripted' it. But it differs in that it grew out of a communication between two people - Maria, who appears in the film, and myself - the camera player. Intuitively I have chosen various spaces and situations in different parts of Yugoslavia; we went there and reacted. I've used sounds previously synthesized in Buffalo and New York.” --A.Z.

• (1979-80, 30 mins, sound, super-8, color)

Plus two earlier 16mm silent films:

New York: Five Studies

The San Francisco Cinematheque calls New York: Five Studies a film “in which the city of New York is presented as never before. For (Zdravic) has captured or rather ‘created' extended moments of rare intensity as the skyscrapers appear to dance around each other, the streets themselves come alive in new visual rhythms - whole new worlds are seen in puddles, and the subways (renowned chambers of horror) become monuments of simple beauty. Many films have been made which have captured certain aspects of beauty and humanity of that great city, but none have succeeded in transforming it utterly and directly as Zdravic does and with a lyricism one would hardly think possible.”

• (1977-78, 40 mins, color, silent)

Venezia

One of a series of comparative city studies.

• (1976, ? mins, silent)